NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- After a Metro teacher was held at gunpoint by her own student this past winter, the Overton High School teacher is speaking for the first time about the situation.

The student was taken into custody after the Feb. 12 incident. The teacher remained calm under pressure but is still afraid to be identified.

"I just stood there in shock and said, 'What's wrong with you?' What's this all about?'" said the teacher.

The 27-year veteran teacher said she wrote up the student for skipping her class the day before. He later walked into her empty classroom holding a gun.

"I didn't have anything to defend myself with, so I just stood there and prayed," she said.

Police caught the student, 17-year-old Ezzealldin Al-Mosawi, shortly afterward. He was uncooperative and had to be restrained after trying to kick out the patrol car's windows.

After going through this ordeal, the teacher said she had every intention of going back to her classroom to teach the very next day.

"Yeah, that's how in shock I was. I actually thought I was going back to work the next day," said the teacher.

"When did you change your mind?" asked Channel 4 reporter Deanna Lambert.

"That next morning, I broke into tears and realized what had happened," said the teacher.

Going through all this has made her change.

"I'm much more aware of my surroundings, and I'm rarely alone," she said.

The Overton teacher said she's thankful to her family, her church and all of the police officers who have helped her through this. She sees a lot of positive things that can come from this.

"This young man can get some help. I don't think we knew that he had these kinds of violent urges," said the teacher.

Prayer and God is what this veteran teacher credits for saving her life that day.

"There was nothing brave or extraordinary I did that day except to pray and to just ask that when he shot me, for me to survive," said the teacher.

She taught inside that same Overton classroom for 10 years before the incident happened. The teacher has not been back to the school since that day, and she plans to give up teaching.

This fall, she hopes to work an administrative job with the school district.

Ezzealldin was originally charged with aggravated assault and possession of a weapon, but that recently changed after he testified there were bullets in the gun and he intended to kill his teacher. The accused student said he didn't know a friend had earlier taken the bullets out.

He will now be tried as an adult on attempted murder charges.